Do Watermelons Need to Be Pollinated?

The Flowers

• Standard watermelon plants produce male and female flowers. Pollen produced in the male flowers must be transferred to the female flowers to form the fruit. Pollination of the female watermelon flower can occur with pollen from the plant itself or with pollen from other watermelon plants.

Insect Activity

• Moving the pollen from flower to flower requires insects. Honeybees are most common with an estimated one bee per 100 flowers necessary to produce a good crop. The bees visit each flower multiple times with an average of eight required for adequate pollination. In commercial watermelon operations, growers maintain up to five bee hives per acre of melon crop. The nectar, a sweet fluid produced by the plant within the flower, attracts the bees to the plant.

Forming Fruit

• Pollen ideally should enter all three of the stigmas of the flower. If the pollen does not reach all the stigmas, a misshaped melon may result. The fruit forms after the pollinated flower dies back. If the pollination is not successful, the flower withers away and no fruit forms.

Seedless Melons

• Seedless melons form only female flowers. Growers plant another variety of watermelon plants in the same field to provide pollen with bees accomplishing the transfer. The seedless melon variety and the pollinator must both bloom at the same time for this process to work. Seedless melons often require a larger bee presence for pollination because of a lower ratio of male to female flowers in the field.